Anime / Persona 5: The Day Breakers

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Looking mighty good.note From left to right: Anne, the Protagonist, Yusuke and Ryuji. At the back is Morgana in his van form.

An anime special tying in with the release of Persona 5. It is a stand-alone episode that showcases the Phantom Thieves of Hearts performing a "routine" caper.

The show was created by Atlus and produced by A-1 Pictures. It will see a DVD and Blu-Ray release in Japan. Overseas, the show's been licensed by Crunchyroll.

This anime special contains examples of:

Adaptation Expansion: The OVA ended up adapting one of the potential side-missions of the game, fleshing out the backstory of the target, Kazuya.

And the Adventure Continues: Having successfully stolen from their target, Yusuke notes that the "next prey is huge," and it's implied that they're going after Kaneshiro next.

The Anime of the Game: In a looser sense than usual. It's not an adaptation of the full game, but of just a single side-story.

Badass Boast: The Phantom Thieves tell Kazuya's Shadow that they're going to show him what it's like to deal with real thieves.

Bait-and-Switch: The plot of the OVA. It was heavily implied that the featured character, Kazuya, sent a request for the Phantom Thieves to target a gang that'd been pressuring him into committing petty crime, but he turns out to be the leader of the gang, who became the target himself when his younger brother sent in a request after his abuse became too much to handle.

Batman Gambit: In order to lure out the gang, Ryuji and Anne talk about how LeBlanc supposedly has lots of money stashed with weak security there. When the thieves take the bait, Joker leaves the calling card at the cash register, Morgana hisses and shrieks, and Joker activates an alarm he got from Iwai to force them to flee.

Calling Card: The Thieves have to deliver one to their target. By comparison, in the game, this isn't necessary for Mementos targets (who become aware that they're being targeted as a result of the Phan-site), and during the IM conversation about this mission in the game, the group actually rules out the plan of using Leblanc to lure the gang in, saying that it's too risky.

Chucking Chalk: While in class, Joker gets hit with this while he's spacing out.

Dreaming of Things to Come: The entire animated special is a dream of the future given by Igor to the Protagonist while he's incarcerated in the Velvet Room.

Evil All Along: The focal character, Kazuya, despite seeming to be a pushover and coerced into helping some criminals, is actually fully complicit in their crimes.

Foreshadowing: A lot of the bad crew's dialogue has different meaning knowing that the put upon lockpicking kid is in it by choice, rather than forced into the crew:

The apparent head of the crew calls him "boss." Sounds sarcastic, but it turns out he formed the crew and considers himself the boss.

The girl in the crew says something along the lines of "this guy will never rat us out." At first it seems like it's because he's too scared to, but it turns out he wouldn't rat out the crew that he formed. And lo and behold, he never does.

Kazuya himself says "I wish those guys would just disappear." It's not because he's scared of them, it's because he thinks they're holding him back.

May–December Romance: It's implied that the female member of Kazuya's gang has, at the very least, a physical relationship with the oldest-looking one from the way she clings to his arm in the van while en route to rob Leblanc.

My God, What Have I Done?: After subduing Kazuya's Shadow and taking his treasure, the real world's Kazuya breaks down into tears as he cries about his crimes and abusive behavior, begging for the police to take him away.

Mythology Gag: Like Devil Survivor and the manga adaptation of the first Persona game, this has two related characters named Kazuya and Naoya. Like Devil Survivor they wind up becoming adversaries.

Protagonist Title: An odd, possibly even unintentional version. The Protagonist goes unnamed throughout the entire show, referred only by his code-name "Joker". However a Manga adaption of P5 began shortly after the games release that gave The Protagonist the name; "Akira Kurusu", with Akira being spelled with the Kanji for "Dawn" or rather "Daybreak". At this point it's unknown if ATLUS came up the name and named the short anime as such, but if not, then it's one hell of a coincidence.

Say My Name: Yusuke screams Joker's name while Joker's being attacked by Mithras.

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